Mother, No!

Am I the only one who ever had a little bit of a crush on Norman Bates? I mean, before all that cross-dressy-stab-stab stuff surfaced, anyway. Boyish good looks, unusually charismatic awkwardness?The guy IS a family man, after all, kind of dude you take home to mom? Unless you get to meet his first….

Hitchcock’s self funded ground breaking classic Psycho (1960) withstands the test of time, even still. It’s trademark piercing, grating music  instantly calls to mind blood down the drain. Hitchcock sucked the audience in from the very start with a smidge of scandal and left them cringing as the film’s big name star bit the bullet early on. The story never really was about Marion, anyway. The story was always that of Norman, oppressed young man at the mercy of an overbearing mother. What made this film shatter the minds of theatre goers, aside from the brutal (for the time) violence, was the villain. Psycho made ripples in the movie world because it’s terror clung to the back of the boy next door, the unassuming neighbour, the everyday man in the motel. After all, we all go a little mad sometimes.

Acting? Top notch, certainly notable accolades to Anthony Perkins as the tortured Bates, and Janet Leigh as the film’s most memorable victim. The score? Still immediately recognizable, chilling, screeching notes of climactic moments compliment the slower scenes thudding, walking tones, working to build up an ominous mood. Direction? Am I going to argue with Hitchcock? Not likely. The man utilized point of view shots and fast moving close ups to mimic the viewpoint of the victims and killer alike. Memorable moments include, of course, Leigh’s death, the swirling shot of her lifeless body, mirroring the swirling of blood down the drain. The swiftly moving shot of Armagast’s last moments as he stumbles down the stairs, backing hurriedly away from his killer. The uncomfortable view of Norman peering through the motel wall as Marion undresses, the light gleaming upon his face in the shadows.

Psycho remains an eerie tale, one that Hitchcock infamously worked hard to create, against recommendations of Hollywood bigwigs. He saw potential in the story the world didn’t want to hear (the novel by Robert Bloch, the script later by Joseph Stefano) and tossed fear in the faces of movie goers who’s idea of horror thus far stretched only to the unbelievable, monsters, vampires, frankenstein. Psycho brought to light the most frightening of villains, the odd fellow down the street.. Psycho not only made audiences afraid of showers, it made them afraid of each other.